2018 Offshore Higher Education Student Survey
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2018 Offshore Higher Education Student Survey Table of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... 3 Results ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Decision factors and influences .............................................................................................. 8 Australian program choice ..................................................................................................... 9 Propensity to recommend .................................................................................................... 10 What matters to students? .................................................................................................. 10 Learning............................................................................................................................ 11 Living ................................................................................................................................ 12 Support............................................................................................................................. 12 Future Plans .............................................................................................................................. 13 Key messages ............................................................................................................................ 14 Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 15 1. Participating Australian institutions ...................................................................... 15 2. Offshore study locations ........................................................................................ 15 Attachments ............................................................................................................................. 17 Attachment 1: Australia Offshore 2018 National Presentation Report .......................... 17 2 Executive Summary In 2018, the Department of Education and Training supported a first-ever satisfaction survey for students enrolled offshore in higher education programs. The project was fully funded by the Enabling Growth and Innovation program. Eighteen Australian universities and one private non-university higher education provider participated, together with 43 offshore partner institutions (see Appendix 1). The survey captured responses from 8,342 students across 11 countries between April and June 2018. Not all students were citizens of the countries they studied in. In total, 72 per cent of student respondents were local and 28 per cent were from another country. Offshore programs included in the survey ranged from large branch campuses with thousands of students to niche programs with fewer than 100 enrolled students. Individual study location reports included benchmarking of results against programs of similar sizes and types, and against other programs in the same country.1 The survey investigated decision factors and influences underlying students’ decisions about where to study, with four main sections of the survey seeking responses on students’ arrival, learning, living and support experiences. Students were also asked about their plans for the future. Key findings of the survey were that reputation, family, friends and institutional websites are the key factors influencing prospective offshore students when they are deciding where to study. Students’ future plans were mainly focused on employment, although few (1%) were planning to pursue employment in Australia. Of the 23 per cent planning to undertake further study, just 5 per cent were planning to do that study in Australia. Table 1. Key factors influencing offshore students to decisions to study an Australian courses and key sources of advice influencing that decision Decision factors Proportion of respondents A qualification from this university 97% Reputation of this institution 95% Earning potential of my chosen degree 95% Influences Proportion of respondents Family 46% Friends 38% Institution website 26% Overall satisfaction scores were generally positive, with some variation between study locations noted in the report. A detailed PowerPoint based report of findings also accompanies this report (Attachment 1). 1 Country benchmarks were created where enough programs existed to maintain the anonymity and confidentiality of individual program results. 3 Headline Results 8,342 students enrolled in 43 offshore programs of Australian higher education institutions responded to the offshore higher education student survey in 2018; Reputation, family, friends and institutional websites are the key factors influencing prospective students when they are deciding where to pursue higher education studies. This is true for students planning to stay at home to study a foreign degree as much as it is for students planning to study overseas; and Student satisfaction with how well their program is organised, including how well institutions assist new students to understand program structures, has a high correlation with students’ propensity to recommend their institution to others. 4 Introduction Australia has a long tradition of seeking to give international students opportunities to provide feedback on their study experience with Australian courses and institutions. This feedback from international students guides policy development and the feedback from students to the institutions they are enrolled with drives quality improvement in teaching and student support services. Since 2010, Australia has conducted an onshore international student satisfaction survey on a biennial basis. In 2018, this approach was extended to students studying Australian higher education (HE) courses offshore at locations including Malaysia, Singapore and China. This project was fully funded through the Australian Government Department of Education and Training’s Enabling Growth and Innovation program. Methodology This offshore higher education student survey project defined: an offshore HE student as a person residing overseas and enrolled with Australian education providers and/or their partnering organisations delivering Australian HE programs; and HE programs as programs leading to an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) qualification in the HE sector (award programs), as well as some non-award programs, delivered to students located in another country by public or private HE providers, through standalone or partnerships arrangements. For the purposes of this project, the HE programs considered were all delivered in the calendar year 2018. All Australian higher education providers were invited to participate in the survey. Eighteen Australian universities and one private non-university HE provider participated with the agreement of 43 offshore partners incorporating branch campuses, offshore partners and other providers delivering Australian courses2. These providers reported hosting 36,523 students enrolled in Australian HE programs or partnership programs across 11 countries – Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Bhutan, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. All those students were invited to participate in the survey and 8,342 students responded representing a response rate of 23 per cent. Of all respondents, 72 per cent were local to the offshore locations they studied at, while 28 per cent were from another country. The 23 per cent response rate was similar to the 24 per cent response rate among students responding to the equivalent onshore international student survey conducted biennially in Australia. Only two of the 43 participating locations reported delivering courses to online students, which was not considered an adequate sample size for analysis as a separate cohort. Those online students were studying award courses. Headline result 8,342 students enrolled in 43 offshore programs of Australian higher education institutions responded to the offshore higher education student survey undertaken between April-June 2018. 2 See Attachment 1 for details of all participating institutions and partners. 5 The 43 offshore study locations included six Australian university branch campuses and a range of partnership arrangements with foreign education providers. Program delivery arrangements were defined as follows: 14 niche programs 1-99 enrolled students 14 small programs 100-499 enrolled students 7 medium programs 500-1,999 enrolled students 2 large program s 2,000+ enrolled students 6 branch campuses3 as designated by the parent university Benchmarks for the measurement and comparison of satisfaction scores were established by program type, as above, and by country. Detailed findings are contained in the PowerPoint –based report at Attachment 1. The survey was conducted fully online between April and June 2018 and de-identified results were provided to participating institutions in November 2018. Full details of the survey methodology and data presentation, including the benchmarking approaches applied, are described in attachments to this report. 3 Curtin Mauritius; Curtin University, Malaysia; Curtin Singapore; James Cook University Singapore; Monash Malaysia; Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak. 6 Results Seven headline results summarise the outcomes of the survey